[58.06] Roger Hayward and the Invention of the Two-Mirror Schmidt

Roger Hayward (1899-1979), now virtually unknown, was a
multitalented architect, scientific illustrator, and optical
inventor. Remembered primarily for illustrating Scientific
American magazine's Amateur Scientist column between 1949
and 1974, he also illustrated more than a dozen textbooks in
optics, physics, geology, oceanography, and chemistry,
several of which became classics in their fields. He
designed façades with astronomical themes for major
buildings in Los Angeles, California, and sculpted mammoth,
realistic models of the moon for Griffith Observatory, Adler
Planetarium, and Disneyland. Throughout his life, he
recreationally painted watercolors and oils that at least
one critic likened to the work of John Singer Sargent.

Hayward is least known as an optical designer, yet he made
significant contributions to the DU spectrophotometer that
established the multimillion-dollar company Beckman
Instruments. During the pre-radar days of World War II at
Mount Wilson Observatory, Hayward invented a classified
Cassegrain version of the Schmidt telescope especially
adapted for nighttime infrared aerial photography, plus
extraordinarily simple machines that allowed inexperienced
soldiers to grind, polish, and test accurate aspheric
Schmidt correcting plates at speeds compatible with mass
production—and later received U.S. patents for them all.

This paper, drawn in part from unpublished letters between
Hayward and Albert G. Ingalls, will feature little-known
images of Hayward’s work.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address
for comments about the abstract:
t.e.bell@ieee.org